User blog:OhItsFluttershy/A Year Later: The TwitterPonies Anniversary
Well, the TwitterPonies online organization is rapidly approaching it’s one year anniversary, and I have to say, I’m impressed! Since February 2011, we have been through hundreds of thousands of tweets, loads of players, and countless adventures online. It really is an impressive feat, and I just want to congratulate every pony, dragon, griffon, rabbit, bird, alligator, owl, cat, dog, yeti, rock, jar of peanut butter, bag of flour, and sea serpent who have made this possible. Who would have thought that a year ago this would extend beyond a couple of friends hanging out at the Treebrary to what it has become! Of course, I wasn’t around at the dawn of Equestria. I actually didn’t join up until a couple months later in May, when I officially took over the mlp_Fluttershy account. It’s surreal, really. When I joined I maybe had somewhere between a hundred and two hundred followers. I can’t remember exactly, to keep count of your followers is the path that leads to madness. Now, my account alone is rapidly approaching 4000 followers (!!!) and has no signs of stopping growth. Starting out, I never imagined it coming this far. In fact, I barely saw myself staying on for more than a couple months or so. Mlp_Twilight had seen my old Fluttershy account that I kept as a joke and asked me to come on as the newest Fluttershy, who had recently left. To be perfectly honest here, I thought the whole thing was silly. A bunch of people, mostly grown men, pretending to be magical ponies? I can’t say you can blame me for being apprehensive. Yet what I found was actually magical. I won’t lie, this has been the most stressful, intimate, fun, frustrating, intense, hilarious, heartbreaking, and without a doubt the best online experience I’ve personally been a part of. And to see it grow in the way it has is both touching and brilliant to watch. As I came into the Fluttershy account, I was myself coming out of some of the worst couple months in my life. I was in the midst of a failing, emotionally abusive relationship. I was jobless, had a terrible semester at school, and was severely depressed. I had even contemplated suicide. What TwitterPonies did, however, is provide an outlet for all of this. When I would come on, joke with my friends, and go on adventures, all those terrible things that were happening would drop away. For a couple hours a night, I wasn’t me anymore. And sometimes that’s all it takes, a little time where you can get out of your skin, to realize everything that you have and get some perspective on your life. It helped, it really did, and now I’m in a much better place, knowing that no matter how hard it gets there’s one place where I can be myself. Or, rather, not be myself! The friends who I’ve made here are, in my opinion, irreplaceable. It’s funny, really, coming in expecting to meet nothing but a bunch of weirdos when, in fact, denying that I must be one of those weirdos myself to join up in the first place! Yet instead of the cynical, obsessive internet type I was expecting, I instead found a group of funny, smart, witty, and all around fantastic people who I could pal around with. Everyone, it’s been a pleasure, truly. I’m sorry this has turned a bit more solemn than what I was going for, but it’s all true. This has been, and I hope will continue to be, an important part of my life. And when I look out at every follower, every retweet, every reply, every piece of hatemail, every crazy OC from the nether dimension, every message, every, well, everything, it’s all contributed to this. So thank you everypony, personally (or rather, ponynally, but that looks stupid) for contributing to everything you see and for making this such a joy. Friendship is magic guys. Now onto the next year! -Fluttershy Category:Blog posts